Jeweled Mummy Found Under Collapsed Roof

Stock image of an Egyptian mummy. The newly found 'Lady of the Jewels' was mostly destroyed by a boulder, but that in turn kept looters away. (Shutterstock)

(Newser)
–
At some point about 4,000 years ago, a female aristocrat in her 30s died in southern Egypt. Archaeologists have finally found her—along with the jewelry she was wearing when buried, reports Discovery. The find is unusual because tomb raiders have generally picked such sites clean, but a stroke of archaeological good luck helped in this case: The roof had caved in. "A large boulder, which had fallen down before the tomb was looted, had crushed and buried a previously untouched coffin with all its content," says the team of Spanish archaeologists who discovered the "Lady of the Jewels."

The mummy and the wooden sarcophagus in which it was buried were heavily damaged, but researchers were able to retrieve a gold-plated necklace, a golden pendant, two silver ankle bracelets, and two golden wrist bracelets, reports the Deccan Herald. The team made the discovery in what's known as the temple of Pharaoh Thutmosis III on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor, though the unknown woman had been buried long before his rule, which ran from 1479-1425 BC. (Click to read about another female mummy who was apparently murdered.)